Björk

[Mirror Image]

Bjork's music has long fascinated me, especially considering her punk, avant-garde, and jazz-rock history with The Sugarcubes and many other bands, but her outbreak into the spotlight came with her album Debut. I remember watching the video for Human Behavior on MTV back in the early 90s and being enchanted and puzzled by the music at the same time. It had this urgency, wild abandon, and primitive quality to it. After all these years later, I finally took the plunge with four recordings: Debut, Post, Homogenic, and Vespertine. Looking forward to digging into these albums.

Anyone here a fan of her music? Has anyone seen her live? Have any stories to tell?

[Rinaldo]

Used to be a fan, well, I a still am, just not that interested as of late. She lost me around Vespertine but I like some of the newer stuff. Earth Intruders was brilliant, as was the video. And speaking of her older stuff, Homogenic is a masterpiece. Easily one of my favourite albums of all time.

Plus, her Arvo Pärt interview is kinda cute:

http://www.youtube.com/v/0BVACGWgN4U

[NJ Joe]

Debut, Post, Homogenic, and Vespertine.

I have these four and Post is my clear favorite, followed by Homogenic.  I also owned Medulla at one point, but I think I sold it.  My favorite song is Unravel from Homogenic.  Put on your headphones and listen to the song Headphones from Post! Enjoy!

[HIPster]

I am a fan and also go back to The Sugarcubes days, when my then-girlfriend turned me on to them.

Saw her live at The Gorge, in WA, as part of the Sasquatch Music Festival (a smaller, PacNW version of Coachella; better too imo).  She was tremendous live!  I think that was when Volta/Voltaic had come out and she concentrated heavily on that material.  I am a fan of the Volta album and play it often.

A long-time favorite Bjork album is Gling-Glo:
[asin]B0000AYL44[/asin]

I linked the CD, but have it on vinyl.  Totally fun record for me. . .

I think you selected 4 good ones MI.  Please report back, after you've listened a bit. 

[Mirror Image]

Used to be a fan, well, I a still am, just not that interested as of late. She lost me around Vespertine but I like some of the newer stuff. Earth Intruders was brilliant, as was the video. And speaking of her older stuff, Homogenic is a masterpiece. Easily one of my favourite albums of all time.

Plus, her Arvo Pärt interview is kinda cute:

http://www.youtube.com/v/0BVACGWgN4U

From what I've heard of Vespertine, I was completely mesmerized. I love the symphonic strings set against the more electronic sounds and thick bass lines. Yeah, I've read several people give Homogenic very high marks. Post seems to get great reviews as well. But I'm going to start with Debut of course and work my way forward.

That interview is pretty cute, but she's just cute as hell anyway. I think so much of her upbringing in Iceland permeates her daily life and music.

[Mirror Image]

I've listened to her and liked everything I've heard, but it's been a while.  Another thing I like about her is her mentoring of other musicians.  she's got a good heart.   From what I've read, she appears to approach her records with much thought about what she hopes to accomplish and take great care to achieve those results.

She does seem to have a good heart no doubt. She also comes across as a very genuine person who isn't into belittling other artists and feels the need to always find new sounds and avenues to explore sonically. A tremendous, if underrated, musician for sure.

[Mirror Image]

I have these four and Post is my clear favorite, followed by Homogenic.  I also owned Medulla at one point, but I think I sold it.  My favorite song is Unravel from Homogenic.  Put on your headphones and listen to the song Headphones from Post! Enjoy!

Homogenic and Post seem to have gotten very good press. Vespertine has as well. Will be sure to listen to Headphones with the headphones on.

[TheGSMoeller]

An image i took myself from Austin City Limits Festival in 2007, part of her Volta tour, my good friend and I pushed our way as close as possible to the stage...




One of the best live shows I've ever seen. About ten years ago I said I must see three acts perform live before I die, Bjork, Philip Glass and Tom Waits. Well I missed Waits by four days by in Dallas by moving to Richmond, Virginia. But Glass and Bjork have been checked off.

Still the best music video ever created...

http://www.youtube.com/v/AjI2J2SQ528

[Mirror Image]

Very cool, Greg. That video is something else. Quite bizarre actually.

[TheGSMoeller]

I have these four and Post is my clear favorite, followed by Homogenic.  I also owned Medulla at one point, but I think I sold it.  My favorite song is Unravel from Homogenic.  Put on your headphones and listen to the song Headphones from Post! Enjoy!

Homogenic is certainly the most pure and original Bjork sounding album. It perfectly highlights the type of melodies and song structure that really set her aside from other artists. Medulla was the beginning of the end, as I've heard some fans call it. Perhaps her experimentation began to over shadow her musical abilities and definitely steered towards different directions musically. But I'm a bit biased and would enjoy Bjork singing the ingredients from a cereal box.
I think her best album is Vespertine, at least as a personal favorite. It just seems to cover all facets that make Bjork great.

Favorite songs...

Desired Constellation

http://www.youtube.com/v/P6CassFknGs


Aurora

http://www.youtube.com/v/IZOWP6QQdRE


If you watch just one, make it this performance of Hyperballad

http://www.youtube.com/v/-W5OfUzwyyw

[TheGSMoeller]

Dancer in the Dark was released during the peak of my Bjork and Dogma 95 interest. The latter being a movement co-founded by filmmaker Lars Von Trier that was to display an all natural setting cinema, films using no special effects, no artificial lights or musical score, etc.
Von Trier directed Bjork in the pseudo-musical with songs (and an overture) written by the singer herself. It holds the honor of being the only film I've seen twice in the same day. Yep, it happened. 
It's an emotional and disturbing tale, but superbly done. Bjork is phenomenal.


http://www.youtube.com/v/N8FJyhnC2Eo

[Mirror Image]

Speaking of Hyperballad here's a great cover by the Marcin Wasilewski Trio:

http://www.youtube.com/v/ru58wsQ9mkM

[Mirror Image]

I didn't know you were quite the Bjork fan, Greg. Good to know you're passionate about her music. Your posts help give me a better scope of her musical output.

[TheGSMoeller]

I didn't know you were quite the Bjork fan, Greg. Good to know you're passionate about her music. Your posts help give me a better scope of her musical output.

You may have opened a can of worms with this thread.    Glad you made this.

[Mirror Image]

Just bought this and it's all Monkey Greg's fault:

[Mirror Image]

You may have opened a can of worms with this thread.    Glad you made this.

I'm glad I made it, too. I'm glad I opened up a can of worms. I think she deserves her own thread because there's no other musician like her out there. As I mentioned in my initial post, Human Behavior opened up some strange sonic-worlds for me. Is that timpani in that song? It sounds like it. This song sounded like nothing on the radio nor did sound like she was backtracking on something that's already been done before. I couldn't tell you why it's taken me so long to come back around to Bjork, but so many other musical interests got in the way. Like my obsession for jazz, which lasted about 14-15 years.

[Mirror Image]

I am a fan and also go back to The Sugarcubes days, when my then-girlfriend turned me on to them.

Saw her live at The Gorge, in WA, as part of the Sasquatch Music Festival (a smaller, PacNW version of Coachella; better too imo).  She was tremendous live!  I think that was when Volta/Voltaic had come out and she concentrated heavily on that material.  I am a fan of the Volta album and play it often.

A long-time favorite Bjork album is Gling-Glo:
[asin]B0000AYL44[/asin]

I linked the CD, but have it on vinyl.  Totally fun record for me. . .

I think you selected 4 good ones MI.  Please report back, after you've listened a bit. 

Thanks for the recommendation, HIPster. I'll certainly try to report my thoughts on each album as I listen to them. I'm going to start with Debut first and work my way forward.

[Mirror Image]

This song is just so...ummm...how do I put this delicately? Umm....BAD ASS!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/v/MxWUwkTZSpg

[71 dB]

My sister is a Björk fan. I like some of Björk's music, but I'm not a fan. The only Björk I have is her vocals on 808 State's track 'OOOPS' from 1991 album EX:EL.

[Rinaldo]

This song is just so...ummm...how do I put this delicately? Umm....BAD ASS!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/v/MxWUwkTZSpg

Word! And speaking of badass, this jazz cover embodies badassary. The main part starts after the 3 minute mark:

http://www.youtube.com/v/uYge2L5qXW4